Many of you would have noticed that we’ve been taking steps through updates and new features to drive towards what we feel is a more authentically Puzzle Quest experience. This probably the biggest change we’ve made to the game since launch.
We’ve introduced a new way to play Puzzle Quest 3 – through the use of Action Points!
It’s been in the works in the background for quite sometime and has quickly become our favourite way to play!
Action Points will be available in update 1.5 which will be released on Tuesday 10th January 00:00 UTC.
This will be the default option for new players to enjoy the game, without the pressure of the timer.
Players will be able to swap between Timer or Action Points through the General tab of the settings menu. If you’re already in a battle, the setting will take effect in the next battle.
- You start with a number of action points based on your hero’s Speed stat. You start with 3 Action Points with 100 Speed.
- Further Action Points are gained at 150, 225, 325, 450, and 600 Speed.
- Each move costs one action point
- Spells don’t cost an action point and can be cast between moves
- Matches of 5 or higher award an action point for the following turn
- Matches of 10 or higher award 2 AP
- You can have up to 10 AP at the beginning of a turn.
- Your AP will reset back up to your base AP value at the start of your turn, plus any bonus AP you earned from the previous turn. If your turn ends with more AP than your base amount, no additional AP will be gained.
The way enemies generated mana currently we felt was counterintuitive. They would generate more mana the better you did – and it wasn’t communicated very clearly.
As such, with the introduction of Action Points, an enemy will also take advantage of this.
- An enemy will get a number of Action Points relevant to their Speed stat
- An enemy will make matches on the board in order to power their spells
- The enemy will either make matches and attack, or cast a spell
- The enemy will continue to attack each turn, even if they don’t match skulls. However when matching skulls, they don’t receive a bonus to their attack.
- The enemy can now charge their spells individually.
- All of an enemy’s spells are now visible in the UI at the same time.
The number of enemies in a battle has been reduced to one in a regular battle, and up to 3 in Dungeon Battles.
- As such, enemies have received a buff to their health, armor, and resistance
- The number of extra enemies in a Co-Op battle has also been adjusted, with one extra enemy added per player in the party in both Dungeons & Skirmishes.
- The puzzle board size has increased from 5×7 to 6×8 (one extra row + column)
- Making a full column match will now heal 10% of starting Armor + Resistance, and cleanse one negative status effect
- We’ve removed the damage dealt by matching gems of your equipped spell’s color. Enemy health, armor, and resistance have been adjusted to account for this loss of damage
- A brief tutorial about the above changes will appear for existing players upon loading into the game on 1.5 for the first time
In order to provide a more unique and interesting experience in Versus, Enemy Heroes don’t behave quite like other enemies like they do in previous updates. Unlike regular enemies, enemy Heroes in Versus do require Skull matches to attack. However, they can also cast their spells without ending their turn.
Spells will now have their mana capped at 80% at the beginning of battle, in line with the cap on the Starting Mana stat.
With the inclusion of the Action Points mode, we didn’t want to completely limit later gameplay to just three moves.
As such, Heroes will now increase their Speed stat as they Level. This will lead to an increase in time to match in Timer mode, as well as an extra AP at level 40.
With the addition of the Action Points gameplay mode, as well as the natural Speed increase in Hero stats, we’ve reduced the amount of extra time received from subsequent matches back to its original value of 0.2s.
Continuing to ensure that Timer Mode and Action Points are evenly balanced is an ongoing priority for us. We’ve tested internally extensively, but it’s also important that we get feedback from you folks in our community!